Tulpa (Tibetan: སྤྲུལ་པ, Wylie: sprul-pa; Sanskrit: निर्मित nirmita and निर्माण nirmāṇa; "to build" or "to construct") also translated as "magical emanation", "conjured thing" and "phantom" is a concept in mysticism of a being or object which is created through sheer spiritual or mental discipline alone.. It is defined in Indian Buddhist texts as any unreal, illusory or mind created apparition. According to Alexandra David-Néel, tulpas are "magic formations generated by a powerful concentration of thought".. It is a materialized thought that has taken physical form and is usually regarded as synonymous to a thoughtform...One early Buddhist text, the Samaññaphala Sutta lists the ability to create a “mind-made body” (mano-maya-kaya) as one of the 'fruits of the contemplative life'.. Commentarial tantric texts such as the Patisambhidamagga and the Visuddhimagga state that this mind-made body is how the Buddha and other Buddhists Arhats are able to travel into heavenly realms using the continuum of the mindstream ("Boddhi") and it is also used to explain the multiplication miracle of the Buddha as illustrated in the Divyavadana, in which the Buddha multiplied his emanation body ("nirmita") into countless other bodies which filled the sky...

Tulpa is a spiritual discipline and teachings concept in Tibetan Buddhism and Bon. The term “thoughtform” is used as early as 1927 in Evans-Wentz' translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. John Myrdhin Reynolds in a note to his English translation of the life story of Garab Dorje defines a tulpa as “an emanation or a manifestation”..As the Tibetan use of the tulpa concept is described in the book Magical Use of Thoughtforms, the student was expected to come to the understanding that the tulpa was just a hallucination.. While they were told that the tulpa was a genuine deity, "The pupil who accepted this was deemed a failure – and set off to spend the rest of his life in an uncomfortable hallucination"..In its natural sense, discipline is systematic instruction intended to train a person, sometimes literally called a disciple, in a craft, ,trade or other activity or to follow a particular code of conduct or "order"..To think good thoughts requires effort.. This is one of the things that discipline – training – is about...

The expedition was intended to counter Russia's perceived ambitions in the East and was initiated largely by Lord Curzon, the head of the British India government. Curzon had long obsessed over Russia's advance into Central Asia and now feared a Russian invasion of British India.. In April 1903, the British received clear assurances from the Russian government that it had no interest in Tibet. "In spite, however, of the Russian assurances, Lord Curzon continued to press for the dispatch of a mission to Tibet," a high level British political officer noted..The expedition fought its way to Gyantse and eventually reached Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, in August 1904. The Dalai Lama had fled to safety, first in Mongolia and later in China, but thousands of Tibetans armed with antiquated muzzle-loaders and swords had been mown down by modern rifles and Maxim machine guns while attempting to block the British advance. At Lhasa, the Commission forced remaining low-level Tibetan officials to sign the Great Britain and Tibet Convention (1904), before withdrawing to Sikkim in September, with the understanding the Chinese government would not permit any other country to interfere with the administration of Tibet...

The causes of the conflict are obscure; historian Charles Allen considered the official reasons for the invasion 'almost entirely bogus.' It seems to have been provoked primarily by rumours circulating amongst the Calcutta-based British administration that the Chinese government, (which nominally ruled Tibet, was intending to give the province to the Russians, thus providing Russia with a direct route to British India, breaking the chain of quasi-autonomous buffer-states which separated India from the Russian Empire to the north..However, it is not known whether the Balfour government was fully aware of the difficulty of the operation, or of the Tibetan intention to resist it..The British force, which had taken on all the characteristics of an invading army, numbered over 3,000 fighting men complemented by 7,000 sherpas, porters and camp followers. The British authorities, anticipating the problems of high altitude conflict, included many Gurkha and Pathan troops from mountainous regions such as Nepal; six companies of the 23rd Sikh Pioneers, four companies of the 8th Gurkhas in reserve at Gnatong in Sikkim, and two Gurkha companies guarding the British camp at Khamba Jong were involved...

A military confrontation on 31 March 1904 became known as the Massacre of Chumik Shenko. Facing the vanguard of Macdonald's army and blocking the road was a Tibetan force of 3,000 armed with primitive matchlock muskets, ensconced behind a 5-foot-high (1.5 m) rock wall. On the slope above, the Tibetans had placed seven or eight sangars.. The Commissioner, Younghusband, was asked to stop but replied that the advance must continue, and that he could not allow any Tibetan troops to remain on the road. The Tibetans would not fight, but nor would they vacate their positions. Younghusband and Macdonald agreed 'the only thing to do was to disarm them and let them go'.. This at least was the official version. The writer Charles Allen has also suggested that a dummy attack was played out in an effort to provoke the Tibetans into opening fire..

It seems then that scuffles between the Sikhs and Tibetan guards grouped around Tibetan generals sparked an action of the Lhasa General – he fired a pistol hitting a Sikh in the jaw. British accounts insist that the Tibetan general became angry at the sight of the brawl developing and shot the Sikh soldier in the face prompting a violent response from the soldier's comrades which rapidly escalated the situation. Henry Newman, a reporter for Reuters, who described himself as an eye-witness, said that following this shot, the mass of Tibetans surged forward and their attack fell next on a correspondent for the Daily Mail, Edmund Candler, and that very soon after this, fire was directed from three sides on the Tibetans crowded behind the wall. In Doctor Austine Waddell's account, "they poured a withering fire into the enemy, which, with the quick firing Maxims, mowed down the Tibetans in a few minutes with a terrific slaughter.." Second-hand accounts from the Tibetan side have asserted both that the British tricked the Tibetans into extinguishing the fuses for their matchlocks, and that the British opened fire without warning. However, no evidence exists to show such trickery took place and the likelihood is that the unwieldy weapons were of very limited use in the circumstances. Furthermore the British, Sikh and Gurkha soldiers closest to the Tibetans were nearly all protected by a high wall, and none were killed..

The Maxim gun was the first recoil-operated machine gun, invented by Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884..It has been called "the weapon most associated with British imperial conquest"..Maxim established the Maxim Gun Company with financing from Albert Vickers, son of steel entrepreneur Edward Vickers. A blue plaque on the Factory where Maxim invented and produced the gun is to be found in Hatton Garden at the junction with Clerkenwell Road in London..In 1895 the Imperial Japanese Army purchased a number of Maxims but later decided to standardize on the Hotchkiss machine gun. The Imperial Russian Army likewise purchased 58 Maxim machine guns in 1899, and contacted with Vickers in 1902 to manufacture the design in Russia, although manufacturing did not start until 1910..During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1906, the Russian Army employed the Maxim in combat, and placed a rush order for another 450 units from overseas suppliers, which were mostly delivered to front-line troops before the end of the war..The American Army had shown interest in the Maxim machine gun since 1887. Model 1889 and Model 1900 Maxims were used for testing, which lasted for years but not continuously..Maxim 5 barrel machine gun, 5 barrel variant fed from overhead inserted magazines and later belt feed...

The Tibetans were mown down by the Maxim guns as they fled. "I got so sick of the slaughter that I ceased fire, though the general’s order was to make as big a bag as possible," wrote Lieutenant Arthur Hadow, commander of the Maxim guns detachment. "I hope I shall never again have to shoot down men walking away."

Half a mile from the battlefield the Tibetan forces reached shelter and were allowed to withdraw by Brigadier-General Macdonald. Behind them they left between 600 and 700 dead and 168 wounded, 148 of whom survived in British field hospitals as prisoners. British casualties were 12 wounded..During this battle and some to follow, the Tibetans wore amulets which their lamas had promised would magically protect them from any harm. After one battle, surviving Tibetans showed profound confusion over the ineffectiveness of these amulets.. In a telegraph to his superior in India, the day after the massacre, Younghusband stated: "I trust the tremendous punishment they have received will prevent further fighting, and induce them at last to negotiate"...

The Convention between Great Britain and Tibet (1904)..

The salient points of the Convention were as follows:

The British allowed to trade in Yadong, Gyantse, and Gartok.

Tibet to pay a large indemnity (7,500,000 rupees, later reduced by two-thirds; the Chumbi Valley to be ceded to Britain until paid).

Recognition of the Sikkim-Tibet border.

Tibet to have no relations with any other foreign powers (effectively converting Tibet into a British protectorate)..

It was in fact the reaction in London which was fiercest in condemnation of the war. By the Edwardian period, colonial wars had become increasingly unpopular,and public and political opinion were unhappy with the waging of a war for such slight reasons as those provided by Curzon, and with the beginning battle, which was described in Britain as something of a deliberate massacre of unarmed men. It was only the support given them by King Edward VII that secured Younghusband, Macdonald, Grant, and others the recognition due for what had been a remarkable feat of arms. Leading an army through remote, high-altitude terrain, fighting courageous defenders, enduring freezing weather in difficult positions, they achieved all their objectives in just six months, losing just 202 men to enemy action and 411 to other causes.. Tibetan casualties have been estimated at between 2-3000 killed or fatally wounded...The British invasion was one of the triggers for the 1905 Tibetan Rebellion at Batang monastery, when anti-foreign Tibetan Lamas massacred French missionaries, Manchu and Han Qing officials, and Christian converts before the Qing crushed the revolt..

Chinese historians write of Tibetans heroically opposing the British out of loyalty not to Tibet, but to China.. They assert that the British troops looted and burned, that the British interest in trade relations was a pretext for annexing Tibet, a step toward the ultimate goal of annexing all of China; but that the Tibetans destroyed the British forces, and that Younghusband escaped only with a small retinue.. The Chinese government has turned Gyantze Dzong into a "Resistance Against the British Museum" promoting these views, as well as other themes such as the brutal life endured by Tibetan serfs who fiercely loved their Chinese mother country.. China also treats the invasion as part of the its "century of humiliation" at the hands of Western and Japanese powers and the defence as a Chinese resistance, while many Tibetans look back to it as an exercise of Tibetan self-defence and an act of independence from the Qing dynasty as the dynasty was falling apart...

When Padmasambhava arrived in Tibet in the 8th century, he subdued all gyalpo spirits and put them under control of Gyalpo Pehar, who promised not to harm any sentient beings and was made the chief guardian spirit of the Samye Temple built at that time.. Some Tibetans believe that the protector of Samye sometimes enters the body of a medium (called the "Dharma Lord of Samye") and acts as an oracle...

The Buddhist concept of reincarnation, while both mysterious and enchanting, is hard for most westerners to grasp. UNMISTAKEN CHILD follows the four-year search for the reincarnation of Lama Konchog, a world-renowned Tibetan master who passed away in 2001 at age 84. The Dalai Lama charges the deceased monk's devoted disciple, Tenzin Zopa (who had been in his service since the age of seven), to search for his master's reincarnation.

Tenzin sets off on this unforgettable quest on foot, mule and even helicopter, through breathtaking landscapes and remote traditional Tibetan villages. Along the way, Tenzin listens to stories about young children with special characteristics, and performs rarely seen ritualistic tests designed to determine the likelihood of reincarnation. He eventually presents the child he believes to be his reincarnated master to the Dalai Lama so that he can make the final decision.

Stunningly shot, UNMISTAKEN CHILD is a beguiling, surprising, touching, even humorous experience. Tenzin Zopa Tenzin Zopa was designated from a young age to be special and his childhood was similar to that of reincarnated masters. He was not allowed to play with monks his own age and was always in classes or with Geshe Lama Konchog (GLK) and the rest of the monastery heads.

The connection between GLK and Tenzin was formed even before Tenzin was born. When Tenzin's mother was in labor, GLK came down from his cave to attend to the delivery. GLK actually turned Tenzin inside his mother's womb to prevent him from being born in a potentially hazardous breach position. Ever since, the locals say, Tenzin wanted to be with GLK. At the age of 7, after long struggles with his father, Tenzin joined GLK and stayed with him until his death.

Tenzin escorted GLK in all of his worldwide teachings and activities and learned English by serving as GLK's translator. Tenzin completed most of his studies on the road, with GLK as his teacher. He went to the university in southern India only for exams, and was always ranked among the top five students out of more than 5000 monks...

Tenzin is one of the youngest Geshes (equivalent to PhD in Buddhist philosophy) in Tibetan Buddhism. He skipped four school years when he was young, and two years ago the Dalai Lama asked the monastery to schedule his final exams four years ahead of time. Today Tenzin is the spiritual director of the Founda tion for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) Center in Malaysia and has thousands of students around the world who consider him the successor of Geshe Lama Konchog...

Kanthaka (in Pali and Sanskrit) (6th century BC, in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, India) was a favourite white horse of length 18 cubits that was a royal servant of Prince Siddhartha, who later became Gautama Buddha.. Siddhartha used Kanthaka in all major events described in Buddhist texts prior to his renunciation of the world.. Following the departure of Siddhartha, Kanthaka died of a broken heart...

Channa - The Divine Charioteer (Pali: Channa; Sanskrit: Chandaka) (6th century BCE, in what is now Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, India) was a royal servant and head charioteer of Prince Siddhartha, who was to become the Buddha. Channa later became a disciple of the Buddha and achieved arahantship, as is described in the 78th verse of the Dhammapada..Channa was a servant in the court of King Suddhodarna who was entrusted to attend to the needs of Siddhartha, who had been lavished and pampered in a series of purpose-built palaces in order to shield him from thoughts of pain and suffering.. This was done due to a prophecy by the ascetic Asita, who predicted that Siddhartha would renounce the throne to become a spiritual leader were he to contemplate human suffering. Channa was the servant who served as the charioteer pulled by the horse Kanthaka, when Siddhartha saw the 4 sights whilst meeting his subjects in the Sakya capital Kapilavastu, which prompted his decision to renounce the world...

During these expeditions, Channa explained to Siddhartha the sights of an elderly man, a sick person, a dead person whose funeral was being conducted and finally, an ascetic who had renounced worldly life for a spiritual one, as Siddhartha who had been secluded from such sights within the palace was taken aback.. Channa was later entrusted by Siddhartha to accompany him upon his escape from the palace to become an ascetic, whilst the remainder of the palace guards were asleep..After initially protesting and refusing to accept that Siddhartha would leave him, Channa saddled Kanthaka, guiding him out of the town aboard the horse to a forest by the edge of the Anoma River.. Channa returned Siddhartha's acoutrements, weapons and hair to Suddhodarnha upon his return to the palace, after Siddhartha compelled him to return after Channa had refused to leave him...

Prince Siddharta after leaving the palace, intending to take up the life of a wandering ascetic or monk.. He travelled with his friend and servant Channa, and his horse Kanthaka....

Little Buddha is a 1993 Italian-French-British drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Chris Isaak, Bridget Fonda and Keanu Reeves as Prince Siddhartha (the Buddha before his enlightenment).. Produced by Bertolucci's usual collaborator, Jeremy Thomas,it marked the team's return to the East after The Last Emperor..Tibetan Buddhist monks from a monastery in Bhutan, led by Lama Norbu (Ruocheng Ying), are searching for a child who is the rebirth of a great Buddhist teacher, Lama Dorje (Geshe Tsultim Gyeltsen). Lama Norbu and his fellow monks believe they have found a candidate for the child in whom Lama Dorje is reborn: an American boy named Jesse Conrad (Alex Wiesendanger), the young son of an Architect and a teacher who live in Seattle...

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Homeland is an American political thriller TV Mind Control series developed by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa based on the Israeli series Hatufim (English title: Prisoners of War), which was created by Gideon Raff..The series stars Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a Central Intelligence Agency officer with bipolar disorder, and, from seasons 1 through 3, Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper.. Mathison had come to believe that Brody, who was held captive by al-Qaeda as a POW, was "turned" by the enemy and posed a threat to the United States..Raff was born in Jerusalem. His father is Eitan Raff, who served as Accountant General in the Israeli Ministry of Finance and was Chairman of the Board of Bank Leumi (Hebrew: בנק לאומי‎, lit. National Bank) is an Israeli bank. It was founded in London as the Anglo Palestine Company on February 27, 1902, by members of the Zionist movement the industry, to promote construction, agriculture, and infrastructure of the land hoped to ultimately become Eretz Yisrael (Hebrew: אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל ʼÉreṣ Yiśrāʼēl, Eretz Yisrael) is a biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area Encompassed by the Southern Levant...

February 10 – Tom and Jerry make their debut in Puss Gets the Boot.. However it is not until 1941 that their current names are adopted-Near Cosenza, Italy Ala Littoria SA Savoia-Marchetti SM-75 AC Type:Route: Brindisi - Rome..Crashed and burned on a hill side in fog. Prior to crashing the crew reported Ice on the wings..Fatalities:10 (passengers:4 crew:6)-16- Altmark Incident: Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cossack (F03) pursues German tanker Altmark into the neutral waters of Jøssingfjord in southwestern Norway and frees the 290 British seamen held aboard..

February 22 – In Tibet, province of Ando, 4-year-old Tenzin Gyatso is proclaimed the tulku (rebirth) of the 14th Dalai Lama- China claims that the Kuomintang Government ratified the current 14th Dalai Lama, and that KMT representative General Wu Zhongxin presided over the ceremony; both the ratification order of February 1940 and the documentary film of the ceremony still exist intact.. According to Tsering Shakya, Wu Zhongxin (along with other foreign representatives) was present at the ceremony, but there is no evidence that he presided over it-The tulku system is an extension of the logic of the Buddhist understanding of karma and rebirth according to which sentient beings come to this present life from their previous lives and are reborn after death..

February 27 – Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14. is a radioactive isotope of carbon with a nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons..The above-ground nuclear tests that occurred in several countries between 1955 and 1980 dramatically increased the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere and subsequently in the biosphere; after the tests ended, the atmospheric concentration of the isotope began to decrease..Most man-made chemicals are made of fossil fuels, such as petroleum or coal, in which the carbon-14 should have long since decayed. However, such deposits often contain trace amounts of carbon-14 (varying significantly, but ranging up to 1% the ratio found in living organisms, a concentration comparable to an apparent age of 40,000)...

Fourteen is a composite number, its divisors being 1, 2, 7 and 14 is the 3rd discrete semiprime (2.7) and the 3rd member of the (2.q) discrete semiprime family..Fourteen is a Keith number in base 10: 1, 4, 5, 9, 14, 23, 37, 60, 97, 157...The cuboctahedron, the truncated cube, and the truncated octahedron each have fourteen faces..Messier object M14, a magnitude 9.5 globular cluster in the constellation Ophiuchus-The brightest stars in Ophiuchus include α Ophiuchi, called Ras Alhague ("head of the serpent charmer"), at magnitude 2.07, and η Ophiuchi, known as Sabik ("the preceding one"), at magnitude 2.43..

The number of Stations of the Crass 14 Holy Helpers were a group of saints formerly venerated together by Roman Catholics of muqatta'at in the Qur'an Infalliables (Masoomeen) in Shia Ithna-Asheri Islam of pieces the body of Osiris was torn into by his fratricidal brother Set & Rama's exile in the forests in Hinduism....

It is an improbable combination: a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the Scottish lowlands.. But the draw of Samye Ling is so strong among young Westerners that there is now a six-month waiting list to take vows. Mick Brown reports.

YOU expect many things, but you don't expect tattoos. The shaven heads and maroon robes, the uniform dispensation of any identifying traits of individuality - all affect a kind of disguise. So at first glance it's impossible to tell who was the public schoolboy, the television personality, the sociology graduate, the croupier, or the hard-core raver doing Ecstasy every night. When a monk inadvertently moves his sleeve, and you catch sight of a tattoo embroidering his arm or laced around his neck, the effect is almost shocking - the rude intrusion of a life that has been discarded on a new life that has been found...

I mention this to one young monk. He laughs and rolls up his sleeve to reveal the motif tattooed across his own bicep, 'Born to raise hell'.. That one, he explains, was done when he was 18, 'out of my head on drugs.' Then he unbuttons his shirt to reveal the Tibetan prayer Om Mani Padme Hung, embroidered over his heart - tattooed two years ago, after he had become a monk. 'A bit of peace,' he says, 'to compensate for all the madness'..

At dawn there is the screech of peacocks and the clatter of pots and pans from the kitchen in the main house - once a hunting lodge - as the mist rises to reveal the Scottish lowlands beyond. The insistent sound of a gong calls the monks and nuns to prayers. They move across the courtyard, pulling their robes more tightly against the morning chill.

The temple of the Samye Ling monastery has been built to Tibetan specifications, two storeys high, surmounted by a pagoda, its fascia etched in tiles of blue, red and green. Inside, a golden, seated Buddha, nine feet high, gazes down impassively from the shrine. A huge ornamental prayer-wheel spins soundlessly within an elaborate lacquered case. There is the smell of wood polish, the faintest aroma of incense, and a sense of absolute stillness..

The monks are ranged down the left-hand side of the temple, sitting cross-legged on cushions. There is Senge, 30 a former pupil at Westminster; Pende, 26, a sociology graduate, and Yangdak - in an earlier life, an area manager for Allied Breweries, until a drugs overdose almost ended his life.

The nuns sit facing them. Ani Chodrun, who as Beki Adam once presented the TV motoring programme, Top Gear, and who has now taken life vows; Ani Sangje, a former speech therapist from Stevenage; and Ani Chochi, 22, the daughter of a retired army officer, and a nun for just 6 weeks..

The prayers are to Tara - a female bodhisattva, or saint, who is believed to emanate compassion. They are chanted in Tibetan, read from prayer-sheets which the monks and nuns rest on lecterns before them, punctuated by the sound of bells, finger-cymbals and drums, and long periods of meditative silence. Some of the monks and nuns fidget and yawn, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. 'Just sitting is the hardest thing for me,' Ani Chochi tells me later..

When prayers end a monk moves around the temple with a notebook, recording the number of mantras each monk and nun has recited. These are added together, a record of the merit which has been spread by the group for the benefit of all 'sentient beings'..

It is a cold morning. Having prayed for the world, Ani Chochi comes out of the temple, pulls on a sweater with a skate-boarding motif and a pair of Doc Martens, and trudges off for breakfast..

'So many young people in the West are mentally unstable,' says Lama Yeshe Osal, the Tibetan abbot of Samye Ling. 'Society tells them, if you have a good education, if you have money, then everything will be fine. But they are never taught the big price they have to pay. Their parents split up, they spend their childhood in a kindergarten, they go to school and university and still they don't have a job. So they don't have security, they are not happy. And then you have alcohol and drugs. Is it any wonder so many of them are confused?'..

A portly man in his 50s, dressed in a silk, Chinese smoking jacket, Lama Yeshe is usually found strolling around the grounds of Samye Ling, hands behind his back - a smiling patriarch, clucking over what he calls 'my monks and nuns'. There are 41 of them at Samye Ling. All but one - an elderly Tibetan - are Westerners. The majority are in their 20s and 30s. The youngest is just 19. Most have come to Samye Ling under a novel probationary scheme introduced by Lama Yeshe, which allows young people to take Tibetan monastic orders for a year..

The first Tibetan Buddhist centre to be established in the West, Samye Ling was founded in 1967 by two Tibetan rinpoches (the word means 'precious one'), who had fled Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1959. For 25 years, the community comprised mainly lay-people - students of Buddhism, erstwhile hippies - with no more than a handful of monks and nuns living there at any one time. Then, in 1992, Lama Yeshe, a brother of one of the founders, took over. Within the Buddhist community, Lama Yeshe is regarded as something of a maverick - 'the rock and roll rebel of institutionalised religion,' as one young monk puts it.

Although raised in a monastery in Tibet from the age of eight until fleeing into India aged 15, Lama Yeshe did not take vows himself until he was 30. This followed a period in America, where he rode a motorbike, had a succession of girlfriends, and cultivated an enthusiasm for Jimi Hendrix's music.. 'In America I saw the advantages, as well as the disadvantages, of having everything,' he says. 'And I also saw the suffering. People taking drugs, poverty, crime - so much pain and suffering'..

Traditionally, in Tibetan-Buddhism, ordination is taken for life, and in the Seventies and Eighties a number of young Westerners took life vows, often with unhappy consequences. 'Often, young people in the West can't even make a decision for one month and keep to that decision,' says Lama Yeshe. 'Because of this weakness of mind, or because the opportunities are always there for them to keep on changing, I could see there was no way anybody could immediately take this ordination for life.'

Since the introduction of the probationary scheme, which is unprecedented in Tibetan-Buddhism, in 1994, more than 80 men and women have taken monastic orders. While the number of monks and nuns in Britain's traditional Catholic orders is in steady decline, there is now a six-month waiting list to join the sangha (community) at Samye Ling. Under the scheme, monks and nuns may either leave the monastery after one year - in which case, they may not return for a further 12 months - or renew their vows for a further 3 years. Only at the end of that time may they take life vows..

'After one year some say, "It's not for me." That's fine, because they will have found some benefit from being here, and be a better person than before. And if people want to stay, then they know the commitment they must make,' Lama Yeshe chuckles. 'The monastic life is very difficult.'

Yangdak runs the Tibetan Tea Room, a small cafe in the monastery grounds. Samye Ling is listed by the Scottish Tourist Board as a site of interest. 'We had a bus-load of Sikhs arrive here once,' a nun serving behind the counter tells me, 'God knows where they came from. But they all seemed to enjoy it.' It is Sunday afternoon, and the cafe is crowded with visitors. Before becoming a monk, Yangdak, who is 31, was Norman Horsburgh, in charge of supervising a chain of bars across central Scotland. He has brought something of his expertise to the Tibetan Tea Room, with its country-style tables and chairs scoured from local junk shops, 10 varieties of herbal tea stacked on the shelves, and home-made carrot-cake.. Norman grew up in Edinburgh. His father worked on oil-rigs. When he was eight, his mother left home to live with another man, taking Norman and his sister with her. As a child he was bullied and as an adolescent he always suspected there was more to life than the butcher's shop where he started work, aged 16.. He put himself through college and trained as a chef, then worked in a bar. By 24 he was area manager for Allied Brew-eries. Good money, a nice car, a share in a house...

It was at this stage that Norman's life began to go wrong. He got into the dance scene and started using Ecstasy; a business deal went wrong; he returned home early from work to find his girlfriend in bed with another man; and he served 16 days in prison for handling a stolen antique and he was also ordered to pay compensation..'I was out of my face for two years. But you can't run away from yourself. The drug-dealer who gives you Ecstasy doesn't tell you, "Oh by the way, you're going to come down from this and you're going to feel like crap." And I came down, and I went as low as you can possibly go.' Eventually, he swallowed 46 anti-depressants. 'It just got too much. I didn't want to commit suicide. I wanted to go to sleep, because the pain in my belly was so hard for the things I'd done in my life.' His father usually returned from work at 5pm, but for some reason, on that day, he came home early. 'He dialled 999. The paramedics came and said, "He's dead." But they kept the machines on.' Norman was in a coma for 5 days...

The overdose, he says, was a turning point. 'It felt like I was reborn. I came out of hospital and went to church and prayed for the first time in my life. I don't know who I prayed to, but I prayed that if there's something out there, to give me some guidance to find a teacher, to help me to help myself, and to help other people'..

As a boy, Norman's family had taken caravan holidays near Samye Ling. 'I didn't know anything about Buddhism, but I had this feeling inside that I wanted to go there.' His father gave him a lift..

'I walked into the temple and sat down and it was as if I'd been doing it all my life. So I do believe I was destined to become a monk. But I also believe I had to go through everything else to realise that.' He took the year's ordination in 1993 and then asked to take life vows. 'There was no doubt about it whatsoever. I'd found what I was looking for. It was bliss.'

It was a year later the police arrived. He had not paid the compensation outstanding from the antiques charge.. 'I honestly thought I'd paid it.' He was driven to Dumfries police station where they took away his robes. He was sentenced to 3 days imprisonment. 'It was amazing! I just sat in my cell meditating. The turnkey saw this and said, "Are you planning to levitate out of here?" He was such a lovely guy. He left my cell door open, but whenever I wanted to go to the toilet I'd tap on the door, just to let him know. Respect was given, y'see. And my lawyer gave me a donation towards a pilgrimage in Tibet.' He throws back his head and laughs..

All his life, says Yangdak, he used to think, if only 'I never think "if only" any more.'

As much as it is a religious belief system, Buddhism is a psychological path, a way of coming to know yourself. Buddhism as therapy and medicine are words one hears often in Samye Ling. If half the community of monks and nuns has been drawn here in a spirit of intellectual inquiry or spiritual search, the other half appears to have been spurred by confusion - a need to make sense of the bewilderment of their lives.. The stories are different, and yet the same factors recur: broken homes, a disenchantment with the education system, experimentation with drugs, or a sense of something missing which neither conventional religion, nor the consolations of career or relationships, have provided..

'But if people come here for escape,' says Lama Yeshe, 'I won't have them. Here, there is no escape from yourself. And if somebody says to me, "I want enlightenment," I say, "Don't come to me. If you have these big, visionary ideas, go somewhere else. I just want to be a practical teacher who can bring some benefit if you put in the effort"...

The Central Path, Middle Way or Middle Path is the term that Siddhartha Gautama used to describe the character of the path he discovered that leads to liberation..In Mahayana Buddhism, the Middle Way refers to the insight into emptiness that transcends opposite statements about existence...

The term Middle Way was used in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the first teaching that the Buddha delivered after his awakening.. In this sutta the Buddha describes the middle way as a path of moderation, between the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification. This, according to him, was the path of wisdom..

Monks, these 2 extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life.. There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable..

Jesus was a Buddhist Monk BBC Documentary ..

Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata (the Perfect One) has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana. And what is that Middle Path realized by the Tathagata..It is the Noble 8fold path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration..

According to the scriptural account, when the Buddha delivered the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, he was addressing 5 ascetics with whom he had previously practiced severe austerities.[d] Thus, it is this personal context as well as the broader context of Indian shramanic practices that gives particular relevancy to the caveat against the extreme (Pali: antā) of self-mortification (Pali: atta-kilamatha)...

In normal biological reference, a nadi can be translated into "nerve" in English.. However, in yogic, and specifically in Kundalini yoga reference, a nadi can be thought of as a channel (not an anatomical structure).. In regard to Kundalini yoga, there are three of these nadis: ida, pingala, and sushumna.. Ida lies to the left of the spine, whereas pingala is to the right side of the spine, mirroring the ida..Sushumna runs along the spinal cord in the center, through the se7en chakras – Mooladhaar at the base, and Sahasrar at the top (or crown) of the head. It is at the base of this sushumna where the Kundalini lies coiled in 3 and a half coils, in a dormant or sleeping state..The Ida and Pingala nadis are often seen as referring to the 2 hemispheres of the brain.. Pingala is the extroverted (Active), solar nadi, and corresponds to the right hand side of the body and the left hand side of the brain.. Ida is the introverted, lunar nadi, and corresponds to the left hand side of the body and the right hand side of the brain... These nadis are also said to have an extrasensory function, playing a part in empathic and instinctive responses...

The House of Wangchuck (Tibetan: དབང་ཕྱུག་རྒྱལ་བརྒྱུད་, Wylie: Dbang-phyug Rgyal-brgyud) has ruled Bhutan since it was reunified in 1907.. Prior to reunification, the Wangchuck family had governed the district of Trongsa as descendants of Dungkar Choji. They eventually overpowered other regional lords and earned the favour of the British Empire. After consolidating power, Penlop of Trongsa Sir Ugyen Wangchuck was elected hereditary King of Bhutan, or Druk Gyalpo ("Dragon King"), thus founding the royal house..There have been 5 Wangchuck kings of Bhutan..The ascendency of the House of Wangchuck is deeply rooted in the historical politics of Bhutan. Between 1616 and 1907, varying administrative, religious, and regional powers vied for control within Bhutan. During this period, factions were influenced and supported by Tibet and the British Empire.. Ultimately, the hereditary Penlop of Trongsa, Ugyen Wangchuck, was elected the first Druk Gyalpo by an assembly of his subjects in 1907, marking the ascendency of the House of Wangchuck..The penlops of Trongsa and Paro, and the dzongpons of Punakha, Thimphu, and Wangdue Phodrang were particularly notable figures in the competition for regional dominance...

Within this political landscape, the Wangchuck family originated in the Bumthang region of central Bhutan.. The family belongs to the Nyö clan, and is descended from Pema Lingpa, a Bhutanese Nyingmapa saint.. The Nyö clan emerged as a local aristocracy, supplanting many older aristocratic families of Tibetan origin that sided with Tibet during invasions of Bhutan.. In doing so, the clan came to occupy the hereditary position of Penlop of Trongsa, as well as significant national and local government positions...Although Bhutan generally enjoyed favorable relations with both Tibet and British India through the 19th century, extension of British power at Bhutan's borders as well as Tibetan incursions in British Sikkim defined politically opposed pro-Tibet and pro-Britain forces.. This period of intense rivalry between and within western and central Bhutan, coupled with external forces from Tibet and especially the British Empire, provided the conditions for the ascendancy of the Penlop of Trongsa..Penlop is a title roughly translating to "Provincial Governor" or the European title "Duke." The crown prince holds the title "Penlop of Trongsa," or "Trongsa Penlop," which is the title held by the House of Wangchuck before its ascendancy to the throne. Originally, there were Penlops for each of the nine provinces of Bhutan, but they were consolidated under the control of the Penlop of Trongsa Ugyen Wangchuck when he became the first Druk Gyalpo..The powerful aristocratic Dorji family are descended from the influential 12th century aristocratic Lama Sum-phrang Chos-rje (b.1179; d. 1265). The Dorji family are therefore also descended from the aristocratic Dungkar Choji (b. 1578) of the prominent Nyö clan. This means that the Dorji family are related by blood to the reigning Wangchuck monarchs who share the same ancestors.. In fact Gongzim Ugen Dorji (b.1855; d.1916) who served as the Chief Minister (Gongzim) to the first king Ugyen Wangchuck was also his second cousin, because they shared the same great-grandfather Padma, son of the aristocratic Rabgyas..As a young lad, Gongzim Ugen Dorji acted as a moderator between the British diplomatic officials and the Bhutanese court.. And in 1864 he accompanied his father to meet the British diplomatic mission under Sir Ashley Eden..

In the early 1960s, the Third King fell ill and went to Switzerland for treatment.. As the king was unavailable, Prime Minister Jigme Dorji sought to fill a leadership role, however this led to tensions with the military and monarchist factions.. Namely, Dorji conflicted with the Royal Bhutan Army over the use of military vehicles, forced the retirement of some 50 military officers, and sought to limit the power of state-supported religious institutions such as the Dratshang Lhentshog and Je Khenpo.. On April 5, 1964, reformist Prime Minister Jigme Dorji was assassinated in Phuentsholing by monarchist cadres as the king lay ill in Switzerland.. The Dorji family was subsequently put under close watch..The King's Tibetan mistress Yangki and her father, who had been implicated in the assassination, suspected that Jigme Dorji's son Lhendup would use the king's absence to exact revenge.. They attempted to flee into India, but were detained at Gelephu.. They eventually fled the country..The King's own uncle and head of the Royal Bhutan Army, Namgyal Bahadur, was among those executed for their role in the attempted coup..The Third King died in 1972, and the Raven Crown passed to the 16-year-old Jigme Singye Wangchuck.. The Fourth King was, like his father, educated in England and India, and had also attended Ugyen Wangchuck Academy in Paro..Rinpung Dzong a fortress-monastery overlooking the Paro valley has a long history. A monastery was first built on the site by Padma Sambhava at the beginning of the 10th century, but it wasn't until 1644 that Ngawang Namgyal built a larger monastery on the old foundations, and for centuries this imposing five storey building served as an effective defence against numerous invasion attempts by the Tibetans..A 16 km road passes up the valley to the ruins of other fortress-monastery Drukyel Dzong, partly destroyed by fire in 1951...

Padmasambhava ( "Lotus-Born"), also known as Guru Rinpoche, is a literary character of terma, an emanation of Amitabha ("The Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light") that is said to appear to tertons in visionary encounters and a focus of Tibetan Buddhist practice..According to the Larger Sūtra of Immeasurable Life, Amitābha was, in very ancient times and possibly in another system of worlds, a monk named Dharmakāra..After the Amitabha doctrine, one can come to paradise (in the Pure Land of Amitābha), if they visualize at their death Amitābha in the heaven (sun) over their head (western horizon), think his name as a mantra and leave the body as a soul through the crown chakra..Amitābha is also known in Tibet, Mongolia, and other regions where Tibetan Buddhism is practiced.. In the Highest Yoga Tantra class of the Tibetan Vajrayana Amitābha is considered one of the 5 Dhyāni Buddhas..Terma (Tibetan: གཏེར་མ་, "hidden treasure")are key Tibetan Buddhist and Bon teachings, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his dakinis (consorts) in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns..Many tertöns are considered incarnations of the 25 main disciples of Padmasambhava..

The "seal" of all tertöns is said to have been Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo (1820-1892). In one of his visions, he could clearly see all the terma that were hidden throughout Tibet and other countries.. He was the only master in Tibetan history to have not only received, but also transmitted the "se7en transmissions" (bka' babs bdun), that are the canonical teachings, treasures taken from the earth, reconcealed treasures, mind treasures, recollections, pure visions, and aural transmissions received in visions...

The Masons have the 3 pillars, and we also have 3 channels within, Ida, Pingala, Shushumna..The black and white checkered floor of Masonic halls, nothing but HariHara, creation and destruction occurring in same space...

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Harihara ( हरिहर) is the name of a combined deity form of both Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara) from the Hindu tradition.. Also known as Shankaranarayana ("Shankara" is Shiva, and "Narayana" is Vishnu), Harihara is thus worshipped by both Vaishnavites and Shaivities as a form of the Supreme God, as well as being a figure of worship for other Hindu traditions in general.. Harihara is also sometimes used as a philosophical term to denote the unity of Vishnu and Shiva as different aspects of the same Supreme God.. The exact nature of both Vishnu and Shiva (from their associated stories in Vedic and Puranic scriptures), and their position of difference or unity (or both), is a subject of some debate amongst the different philosophical schools...

Harihara is depicted in art as split down the middle, one half representing Shiva, the other half representing Vishnu.. The Shiva half will have the matted locks of a yogic master piled high on his head and sometimes will wear a tiger skin, reserved for the most revered ascetics.. Shiva's pale skin may be read as ash-covered in his role as an ascetic..The Vishnu half will wear a tall crown and other jewelry, representing his responsibility for maintaining world order.. Vishnu's black skin represents holiness.. Broadly, these distinctions serve to represent the duality of humble religious influence in the ascetic and authoritative secular power in the king or householder...

On the Tracing Board of the First Degree appear 3 Pillars (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian), springing from the ground, rising into the heavens, supporting no visible structure, and yet forming conspicuous emblems..Most fissions are binary fissions (producing 2 charged fragments), but occasionally (2 to 4 times per 1000 events), 3 positively charged fragments are produced, in a ternary fission.. The smallest of these fragments in ternary processes ranges in size from a proton to an argon nucleus..There has been a statistically high incidence of pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, and motor neuron disease occurring in and around Rutherford's former laboratories..He is widely credited with first "splitting the atom"...

Tenzing OSN GM (29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Indian Sherpa mountaineer.. Among the most famous mountain climbers in history, he was one of the first 2 individuals known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, which he accomplished with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953..He was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century..There are conflicting accounts of his early life.. The account that he gave in his autobiography, accepted for several years, is that he was a Sherpa born and brought up in Tengboche, Khumbu in northeastern Nepal.. However, it is also considered that he was born in Tibet at Tse Chu in the Kama valley and spent his early childhood in the Kharta valley nearby to the north. On this account Tenzing went to Nepal as a child to work for a Sherpa family in Khumbu lies near Mount Everest, which the Tibetans and Sherpas call Chomolungma, which in Tibetan means Holy Mother.. He was a Nepalese Buddhist, the traditional religion of the Sherpas and Tibetans..His exact date of birth is not known, but he knew it was in late May by the weather and the crops.. After his ascent of Everest on 29 May, he decided to celebrate his birthday on that day thereafter.. His year of birth according to the Tibetan Calendar was the Year of the Rabbit, making it likely that he was born in 1914...

He was originally called "Namgyal Wangdi", but as a child his name was changed on the advice of the head lama and founder of the famous Rongbuk Monastery, Ngawang Tenzin Norbu.. Tenzing Norgay translates as "wealthy-fortunate-follower-of-religion".. His father, a yak herder, was Ghang La Mingma (d. 1949) and his mother was Dokmo Kinzom (who lived to see him climb Everest); he was the 11th of 13 children, most of whom died young..He ran away from home twice in his teens, first to Kathmandu and later Darjeeling, in India, at the time the starting point for most expeditions in eastern Himalaya.. He was once sent to Tengboche Monastery to be a monk, but he decided that it was not for him, and departed..Tenzing took part as a high-altitude porter in 3 official British attempts to climb Everest from the northern Tibetan side in the 30s.. On the 1936 expedition, he worked with John Morris..In 47, he took part in an unsuccessful summit attempt of Everest.. Canadian-born Earl Denman, Ange Dawa Sherpa, and Tenzing entered Tibet illegally to attempt the mountain; the attempt ended when a strong storm at 22,000 ft (6,700 m) pounded them...

In 1952, he took part in the two Swiss expeditions led by Edouard Wyss-Dunant (spring) and Gabriel Chevalley (autumn), the first serious attempts to climb Everest from the southern (Nepalese) side, after two previous US and British reconnaissance expeditions in 1950 and 1951..During the autumn expedition, the team was stopped by bad weather after reaching an altitude of 8,100 metres (26,575 ft)..In 1953, he took part in John Hunt's expedition, his own seventh expedition to Everest. A member of the team was Edmund Hillary, who had a near-miss following a fall into a crevasse, but was saved from hitting the bottom by Tenzing's prompt action in securing the rope using his ice axe, which led Hillary to consider him the climbing partner of choice for any future summit attempt..The Hunt expedition totalled over 400 people, including 362 porters, twenty Sherpa guides and 10,000 lbs of baggage, and like many such expeditions, was a team effort..They spent only about 15 minutes at the summit.. Hillary took the famous photo of Tenzing posing with his ice-axe, but since Tenzing had never used a camera, Hillary's ascent went unrecorded. However, according to Tenzing's autobiography Man of Everest, when Tenzing offered to take Hillary's photograph Hillary declined – "I motioned to Hillary that I would now take his picture.. But for some reason he shook his head; he did not want it".. Additional photos were taken looking down the mountain in order to re-assure that they had made it to the top and that the ascent was not faked.. The two had to take care on the descent after discovering that drifting snow had covered their tracks, complicating the task of retracing their steps. The first person they met was Lowe, who had climbed up to meet them with hot soup..

On 7 June it was announced that the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II wished to recognize the achievement of Tenzing, and on 1 July 10, Downing Street, announced that following consultation with the governments of India and Nepal the Queen had approved the award of the George Medal to him.. He also received, along with the rest of the Everest party, the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal..Tenzing was married 3 times..Tenzing died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India, in 1986, at age 71.. His remains were cremated in Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, his favorite haunt...

The identity of the monk is unclear, though there is speculation that he is the teacher of Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, who was also found mummified..In 1927, Itigilov - from neighbouring Buryatia in the then Soviet Union - supposedly told his students he was going to die and that they should exhume his body in 30 years..The lama sat in the lotus position, began meditating and died..When he was dug up, legend has it that his body was still preserved..Fearing interference by the Soviet authorities, his followers reburied him and he remained at rest until 2002 when he was again dug up to great fanfare and found still well preserved..The lama was then placed in a Buddhist temple to be worshipped for eternity..

Sokushinbutsu (即身仏) refers to a practice of Buddhist monks observing austerity to the point of death and mummification.. This process of self-mummification was mainly practiced in Yamagata in Northern Japan between the 11th and 19th century, by members of the Japanese Vajrayana school of Buddhism called Shingon ("True Word").. The practitioners of sokushinbutsu did not view this practice as an act of suicide, but rather as a form of further enlightenment.. Those who succeeded were revered, while those who failed were nevertheless respected for the effort..It is believed that many hundreds of monks tried, but only 24 such mummifications have been discovered to date.. There is a common suggestion that Shingon school founder Kukai brought this practice from Tang China as part of secret tantric practices he learned, and that were later lost in China...

Brahmā is the Hindu god (deva) of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva.. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Manu, and from Manu all human beings are descended.. In the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, he is often referred to as the progenitor or great grandsire of all human beings.. He is not to be confused with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit in Hindu Vedānta philosophy known as Brahman, which is genderless.. Brahmā's wife is Saraswati.. Saraswati is also known by names such as Sāvitri and Gayatri, and has taken different forms throughout history.. Brahmā is often identified with Prajapati, a Vedic deity.. Being the husband of Saraswati or Vaac Devi (the Goddess of Speech), Brahma is also known as "Vaagish," meaning "Lord of Speech and Sound"...

The Four Faces – The four Vedas (Rig, Sāma, Yajur and Atharva)...

The Four Hands – Brahmā's four arms represent the four cardinal directions: east, south, west, and north. The back right hand represents mind, the back left hand represents intellect, the front right hand is ego, and the front left hand is self-confidence..

The Swan is the symbol of grace and discernment. Brahmā uses the swan as his vāhana, or his carrier or vehicle...

Vishnu with Lakshmi, on the serpent Ananta Shesha, as Brahmā emerges from a lotus risen from Viṣṇu's navel..

Lord Brahma is reverentially addressed as Pitamaha (father of fathers) by Devas, Demons, and Humans. Since Brahma is also a Prajapati all these people used to visit him . According to the Upanishads the Lord used to teach the Vedas and the importance of virtue to these people.. They all used to spend considerable time with Him to acquire knowledge of the Atman..Lord Brahma the God of Destiny or Fate: Lord Brahma is also called as Vidhi, DhAtA, and VidhAtA. Vidhi means the Ordainer. Vidhata means disposer,ordainer, Arranger,or Law-maker..He is also called as Twasta, Viswadeva..It is believed that Brahma examines the Karma of every being in his previous births and accordingly decides what should be the fate of the individual in the present birth..

The largest and most famous shrine to Brahmā may be found in Cambodia's Angkor Wat..Satyaloka is by 120,000,000 yojanas above Tapoloka. Thus the distance from the Sun to Satyaloka is 233,800,000 yojanas, or 1,870,400,000 miles..With regard to Brahmā's day and night, each consists of 14 of his hours or 4.32 billion human years.. "Brahma has four heads" (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 12.8.2–5)..Brahmā has his own sampradāya.. Brahmā appeared on a lotus flower which sprouted from the navel of Garbhodakṣāyi Viṣṇu. After meditation Brahmā created 14 planetary systems and many living beings came there in 8400000 kinds of material bodies according to their past desires...

The Dalai Lama has told the BBC's Newsnight he does not know whether he will be the last to hold the title.

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said he realises that he may be the last to hold the title...

But he told the BBC it would be better that the centuries-old tradition ceased "at the time of a popular Dalai Lama".

The Dalai Lama suggested the UK had taken a soft line with China over Hong Kong's recent student-led pro-democracy protests for financial reasons.

He also said the international community needed to do more to encourage democracy in China.

"China very much wants to join the mainstream world economy," he said.

"They should be welcome, but at the same time the free world has a moral responsibility to bring China into mainstream democracy - for China's own interests."

In the wide-ranging interview, during a visit to Rome for the 14th World Summit of Nobel Laureates, he was also asked about Britain's stance with China over the Hong Kong protests..

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet..Beijing views the Nobel Peace Prize-winner as a "splittist", though he now advocates a "middle way" with China, seeking autonomy but not independence for Tibet.

Whether another Dalai Lama came after him would depend on the circumstances after his death and was "up to the Tibetan people", he said.

Tibetan Buddhism's second-highest figure is the Panchen Lama - a figure who is meant to play a key role in the choice of the next Dalai Lama.

A young boy was named as Panchen Lama by the Dalai Lama in 1995, but China rejected this and chose its own candidate. The whereabouts of the Dalai Lama's choice are unknown..

Nowadays they may seem as quaint as sedan chairs or gas lamps, but without them we would not have computers – a salutary thought..Have you ever thought about becoming a typist ?..Copy typists learn to touch type at a high speed, which means they can look at the copy they are typing and do not need to look at the keyboard they are typing on...

In the East, they are known as the “Brothers of the Shadow,” living men possessed by the earth-bound elementaries; at times—their masters, but ever in the long run falling victims to these terrible beings. In Sikkim and Tibet they are called Dug-pas (red-caps), in contra-distinction to the Geluk-pas (yellow-caps), to which latter most of the adepts belong. And here we must beg the reader not to misunderstand us. For though the whole of Bhûtan and Sikkim belongs to the old religion of the Bhons, now known generally as the Dug-pas, we do not mean to have it understood that the whole of the population is possessed, en masse, or that they are all sorcerers. Among them are found as good men as anywhere else, and we speak above only of the élite of their Lamaseries, of a nucleus of priests, "devil-dancers," and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population.. (Blavatsky Collected Writings, vol. 6, pp. 197-198)

In medicine, a Phrygian cap is the folded portion of some gallbladders that resembles the Phrygian cap (a soft conical cap with the top pulled forward, associated in antiquity with the inhabitants of Phrygia, a region of central Anatolia).. It is a normal anatomical variant seen in 1-6% of patients..

The gallbladder is a hollow organ that sits just beneath the right lobe of the liver.In adults, the gallbladder measures approximately 8 centimetres (3.1 in) in length and 4 centimetres (1.6 in) in diameter when fully distended...

Gallstones are the most common problem to affect the gallbladder..Gallstones generally form when the bile is saturated with either cholesterol or bilirubin...